Last month, Maine Governor Janet Mills signed a bipartisan legislation requiring the state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to approve a power-purchase agreement for the 12-megawatt Aqua Ventus project, which will be built using two turbines off the coast of Maine, according to a report. This is a momentous, long-awaited step towards energizing Maine’s renewable energy market. 

New England Aqua Ventus I, the most advanced floating offshore wind pilot project in the U.S., expects to announce a new investor by this fall following this development, in addition to the $40 million in grant funding from the U.S. Energy Department. The project is led by Maine Aqua Ventus I, GP, LLC, with participants including Maine construction firm Cianbro Corporation, the University of Maine, and DCNS.

“Aqua Ventus” will deploy two 6 MW turbines on VolturnUS, the UMaine-designed floating concrete semi-submersible hull, south of Monhegan Island, off the coast of Maine and has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of offshore wind, and bring lower-cost, clean renewable energy to coastal population centers, according to the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures & Composites Center.

Governor Mills noted that Maine will “begin working with the federal government and nearby states New Hampshire and Massachusetts to identify offshore wind zones on the Outer Continental Shelf along the Gulf of Maine, potentially opening a big new U.S. region for development.”